Fire and Ice
by Dreaming of Everything
Summary: From what I've tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire. But if I had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate, to say that for destruction ice, is also great, and would suffice. Very vaguely Zutara take on Fire and Ice, by Robert Frost.


**A/N:** Vaguely Zutara, (ZukoxKatara,) and largely one-sided, on the part of Zuko.

**Disclaimer:** Avatar: The Last Airbender is not mine. The poem "Fire and Ice" is by Robert Frost, who is **not** a) a fanficcer, b) a girl, c) alive and d) me.

EDIT: Re-uploaded because I forgot to do some formatting changes and spellcheck.

Some say the world will end in fire;

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if I had to perish twice

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

--Robert Frost

_--Some say the world will end in fire;_

_Some say in ice.--_

Zuko was a creature of fire: passionate, fierce, intense, dangerous. He _wanted_, _desired_, and would achieve what he lusted over, through virtue of position or through strength of will. It defined him, and lent him strength.

Katara was a creature of water, in all of its forms: fluid, changing, unstoppable, forceful, cold. Slow to hate and even slower to forgive. She held grudges she should have long-since forgotten or forgiven, though never trivial ones—those she let go of easily, with a smile, because she knew what true pain was, and true hate.

_--From what I've tasted of desire_

_I hold with those who favor fire.--_

Zuko desired the Avatar because Zuko desired love, and it was his only chance to receive it. Fire never admits defeat, and Zuko was a true son of the fire nation, now, his flaws long-since burned out of him. His impurities had been cleansed, and he had grown to understand the way of the world.

_--But if I had to perish twice_

_I think I know enough of hate--_

Katara hated fire benders for taking her mother, with all the force-of-will of a lonely child and that hurt combined with the weight of her memories to make a determination as undeniable and unstoppable as a glacier, slow-moving and bitterly cold. A river of ice and no way to stop it and no way to escape, only to run, though it would catch up in the end..

_--To say that for destruction ice--_

More recently Zuko has desired Katara, though he has said nothing. He understands that it would smirch his honor, if he does not understand that he is playing with liquid nitrogen, cold enough that it will burn you as badly as any coals and harder to control, flowing through any available cracks as unstoppably as the tide. He is a creature of fire, and he doesn't understand ice, and the inexorable, glacial anger that Katara carries with her is more weight than his flames will ever be. Her anger does not flare like his does, doesn't settle down to embers and eventually die. Instead, hers is never stopping, never changing, always pushing slowly forward, crushing. Water does not ever fade away, whether its vapor or ice or water itself. It doesn't fade, doesn't extinguish itself.

_--Is also great--_

Zuko is startled when Katara's dams break down and the hate she had suppressed comes flooding out, hate and rage and anger and loneliness, and he is drowning in the flood, used to his own hate, his own fire, his own desires, and he is startled by how implacable, substantial, immovable water can be, how heavy. How deadly.

_--And would suffice.--_

Katara is shocked by her rage, not knowing its strength. She should have known, most of all, of water's illusory depths, ice's veiling opaquity. And she is frightened by it, because she is a creature of water but not the water itself. She is alive, made up of all four elements, with air for breath and earth for body and fire for the life-force that drives it and water for the blood, and though she is ruled by water, her hate is tempered by fire's insubstantiality, air's forgiveness, earth's acceptance, and she learns to let go. It is easier to stand upright now, her mind clearer, cleaner, now that the flood-waters of rage have receded. She is still water, as dew as still water, and she will still hate, as dew-drops still gather, slowly, into oceans.

Zuko is surprised, and he resists his passions, keeps himself from flaring up, keep himself from lashing out at the world, because he understands, and it is enough. He is a creature of fire, inimical to water, but he is still a creature as well, not pure as his ruling element itself is, and even the water that he despises, looks down on, runs in his veins, and he can hear it singing through his body when he fights, when he thinks of Katara, when he _lives_. Controlling his passions, his impulses, clears his mind, lets him regain a sense of who he is. It is odd for him to realize that he is getting reacquainted with himself, but he does so anyways. He is still fiery, temperamental, moody, but it is in control, not controlling him. His passions are still there, for love (and through that, for the Avatar) and for Katara, (and through her, love,) but they are different, now. He is beginning to understand, and to question, and eventually things may change. Water is known for its fluidity, even when it is more forceful than rock (and in the long run, water will win against even the largest mountain) and fire is not known for change, but it is no surprise that it still can. Zuko is human first, a prince second and fire thirdly, as Katara is a human, a sister and friend and only then water.

In the end, even fire and water begin to understand, and maybe the world won't end up ending after all.

**--End--**

**A/N:** And end. This is one of the odder things I've ever written. And the oddest romance. Ish. Thing.


End file.
